In this sample chapter, Molly Holzschlag explores some of the issues surrounding the design and technology of publications through WebReview.com, an award-winning resource site for web developers and designers.

This sample chapter is excerpted from XML, HTML, XHTML Magic, by Molly Holzschlag.

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

"For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the
quality of life, please press three."Alice
Kahn

In Chapter 2, "Updating a Daily News Site," you put
together a daily newspaper. You learned how to fashion columns and create
readable style. But more magic is needed to manage the design and technology of
publicationsespecially large publications and information sites. In this
chapter, you explore some of these issues through WebReview.com, an
award-winning resource site for web developers and designers.

Project Snapshot

The problem: Managing larger, regularly updated, content-rich sites.

This chapter is for anyone who is looking for solutions to manage navigation,
presentation, and effective markup of large, content-rich sites.

Technical Specs

The following are the technical specifications that you need to manage a
weekly publication:

Markup usedXHTML 1.0 (You can also use HTML 4 if you
prefer.)

Document type definition (DTD)
usedTransitional.

From a markup perspective, I used XHTML 1.0 transitional when I developed the
site. My rationale for doing so was two-fold. First, a site that's
predominantly made up of text conceivably can be simplified to ensure crisp
separation of document formatting and presentation, even using complicated
tables to ensure the layout remains intact across platforms and browsers. The
rationale was a good one, but during the production process, I learned my choice
was compromised by the amount of ads I had to design into the site. The more
complex a layout becomes, the more difficult it becomes to separate document
formatting from presentation.

Structure Inspiration

A primary concern with any regularly published, content-rich site is how to
effectively manage a site's infrastructure. There's no definite answer
heremuch depends on your publication's specific needs. However,
it's a good idea to grab a pen and paper, a great big white board or
charting software, such as Visio, and work out the site's physical
structure before you attempt to write any of the markup.

A strong physical site structure helps ensure that your markup is more
consistent. Where things such as directories for images, media, and style
sheets, archived information, and so on, are placed will immediately be
reflected in the way you write your internal links. This, in turn, reflects on
the markup and the speed at which you can troubleshoot problematic
documents.

Unfortunately, many of you will walk into situations that you can't
change; pre-existing problems must be dealt with as best as possible. Streamline
wherever you can. Cleaner markup that relies on style sheets makes so much sense
when it's put into this perspective. Imagine how easy it would be to update
a site simply by changing its style sheet and not having to rebuild it from the
ground up? Now that's practical.

The second reason I selected XHTML 1.0 was that I wanted to make a statement
that showed that XMLin the form of XHTMLcould easily be used on the
web. I learned some interesting lessons from making the choice to use XHTML,
especially in terms of JavaScript, as you see later in this chapter.

Because the exercises in this chapter are comparative, you can choose to use
HTML 4 or XHTML 1.0. My only recommendation is that you stick to the
transitional DTD to ensure utmost flexibility in a design that's still
primarily accessed through the web. If you're shifting toward a publication
that appeals to users accessing with wireless and other devices, consider moving
to strict markup instead.

Here are the additional technologies or skills that you need:

Familiarity with HTML.

Familiarity with a text editor, such as Notepad, SimpleText, or a
favorite HTML editor.

Browser considerations: Cross-browser compatible site.

You must use an external style sheet and an embedded style sheet.

Here's how you should structure your site. In the case of WebReview.com,
the site uses a hierarchical structure. Top-level pages are used daily. The
second tier contains information by year, and the third level contains the
individual issues and their dependents by date.

How a real-world site is structured will be determined greatly by individual
needs. So if you have a publication site that is updated monthly, you'll
have different archival management needs. What's more, you might already be
working on a site that has legacy problems with structure and have to make do.
See the sidebar, "Structure Inspiration" for some ideas on how to
solve structure problems.